Moneyball Update – Week 11

This game could be summed up by saying that the Falcons have a few too many breakdowns (in the secondary) and didn’t take advantage of the opportunities given to them. A Grimes interception and a missed field goal by Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes turned into 0 points for the Falcons. The Falcons had a long drive at the end of the 3rd quarter, burning 6 minutes of clock. Penalties really helped on their drive, as two third downs were converted due to penalties on the Giants. And the drive was culminated by Michael Jenkins’ infamous drop in the end zone and were forced to settle for 3 points instead of 7.

Matt Ryan bounced back in this game. No picks, and had almost as many third down conversions (6) as he did poor throws (7), which it seemed like he hadn’t had a game like that in forever. He played well in the second half and looked really good in the final two scoring drives in the fourth quarter. It was on those two drives that Tony Gonzalez really earned a big chunk of what we gave up to get him. He was brilliant, catching 6 passes for 66 yards, including the 11-yard game-tying score. He converted two third downs, one second down, and also had an 11-yard reception on a 3rd & 12, which led to Jason Snelling converting a 4th & 1. Snelling had another solid game running the ball. Roddy White really didn’t do much in this game. He had a big catch on the game-tying drive, but the Giants did a fairly good job of making him a non-factor. Jenkins dropped an easy touchdown pass early in the game, although he did comeback somewhat with some nice catches on the drive that cut the Giants lead to seven points.

The offensive line didn’t have a great game, especially Clabo and Baker having their hands full with Umenyiora and Tuck. But I give them credit, on the game-tying drive, neither player was a factor, so they stepped up their play when necessary. It seemed like the Falcons had trouble dealing with the Giants blitz. Todd McClure had one of the worst games he’s had in a very long time. Blalock was subpar, and Dahl was okay.

PLAYER

PASS

RUSH

REC

BLOCK

SPEC

PEN

TOTAL

Matt Ryan

$11

$3

$0

$0

$0

-$2

$12.00

Jason Snelling

$0

$11

$1

$0

$0

$0

$12.00

Tony Gonzalez

$0

$0

$5

$0

$0

$0

$5.00

Justin Peelle

$0

$0

$4

-$1

$0

$0

$3.00

Michael Jenkins

$0

$0

$3

$0

$0

$0

$3.00

Justin Blalock

$0

$0

$0

$3

$0

$0

$3.00

Harvey Dahl

$0

$0

$0

$3

$0

$0

$3.00

Roddy White

$0

$0

$2

$0

$0

$0

$2.00

Eric Weems

$0

$0

$2

$0

$0

$0

$2.00

Ovie Mughelli

$0

$0

$0

$2

$0

$0

$2.00

Sam Baker

$0

$0

$0

$1

$0

$0

$1.00

Tyson Clabo

$0

$0

$0

$0

$0

$0

$0.00

Todd McClure

$0

$0

$0

-$2

$0

$0

-$2.00

This was likely the game that the Falcons decided to sign Dunta Robinson. The entire secondary was pretty bad in this game. Grimes had a nice interception early in the game, but it really had no impact on the outcome. Other than that, pretty much everybody in the secondary and the linebackers really struggled in coverage. There just were a lot of break downs. Linebackers and corners playing zone when they were supposed to be playing man. Guys not getting enough depth in their drops, and corners not playing the ball at all. Eli Manning looked like his big brother in this game. The Falcons had 12 blown coverages in this game. The Falcons were getting pressure on Manning, but had many of them negated because of poor secondary play. By my count John Abraham alone had 3 pressures negated by poor coverage. The defensive line had a nice game and all three linebackers did a fairly solid job against the run, but other than that this was a bad defensive performance. Poor Jamaal Anderson, he had a sack negated by a 12-men in the huddle penalty from Stephen Nicholas.

As far as special teams goes, Jason Elam missed another chip shot due to his and Koenen’s timing being off. Coverage units weren’t great either as Hixon had a nice couple of returns.